Fantasy baseball waiver wire: Cole Ragans injury clouds outlook as replacements emerge

The reinforcements have started to arrive at starting pitcher. Trey Yesavage, Spencer Strider, and Zack Wheeler all made their debuts in the past couple of weeks, and they're about to be joined in the next few weeks by Carlos Rodon, Gerrit Cole, Blake Snell, and Jared Jones, all of whom figure to make their debuts sometime in May.

But if you haven't noticed the state of the SP position improving in your lineup, you're not alone. While it's been nice to see those big names making progress in their returns from injury, it just can't keep up with attrition. In the past week, Garrett Crochet and Tarik Skubal have joined Hunter Brown as top-10 SPs on the IL, and we've seen other presumed difference makers like Nick Pivetta, Brandon Woodruff, and Trevor Rogers go on the IL, too. And the blows just keep coming.

Wednesday saw two more aces go down. Tyler Glasnow left his start while warming up for the second inning with a back injury, and then Cole Ragans followed him a few hours later with elbow soreness. And hey, for good measure, we found out that Logan Webb will have testing done after he left Tuesday's start with left knee discomfort. Framber Valdez only having his next start pushed back a day after being suspended for five games is downright good news in this context! 

The other good news is that Glasnow's injury doesn't seem terribly serious. He's had a long history of back issues, but it hasn't typically been a debilitating issue for him as much as an annoying one. In 2024, he missed a couple of weeks with lower back tightness, and he had a start pushed back a few days last September, but neither ended up being a serious issue, and it doesn't sound like this one will either – Glasnow acknowledged "I get it a couple times a year," and he'll have an MRI taken, but is not expected to go on the IL at this point. And the last time he had this issue? He struck out 11 in seven no-hit innings in his next start. Hopefully, he reacts the same way this time around.

Unfortunately, the news isn't quite so positive for Ragans, who left his game in the third inning with what was described as elbow and triceps soreness. Ragans' velocity notably dipped in the third inning before he worked out of a jam, and the decision was then made to pull him from the game.  And, given Ragans' history (which includes multiple Tommy John surgeries), that's awfully scary, though he did acknowledge that the injury felt different this time than when he ended up needing Tommy John. 

"I've been through the elbow stuff, he said, via Anne Rogers, who covers the Royals for MLB.com. "I know it's not what I've been through before."

That is, I suppose, mildly reassuring. Of course, there are plenty of injuries a pitcher can have happen to their elbow without it being related to a UCL injury. And just because Ragans thinks the injury is different than previous ones doesn't mean it is – athletes are often more optimistic about their health than ends up being appropriate. 

Which is to say, as of Wednesday night at least, we have no idea how much time Ragans is going to miss. The immediate aftermath of an injury always creates an information vacuum, and right now, it's not Ragans' elbow; it's Schrodinger's elbow. It might be fine; it might be a major issue. Until Ragans sees a doctor and goes for more testing, we can't possibly know what to expect moving forward, though I tend to lean toward being pessimistic when it comes to pitcher injuries. 

I'm expecting Ragans to be the latest ace to hit the IL. If you're looking for replacements for him, the first place you should check is your league's waiver wire to see if Marlins' pitcher Robby Snelling is available – we'll have more on him shortly in today's newsletter. Otherwise, I went through some other waiver-wire targets and buy-low candidates to consider when Skubal went down. 

That was two days ago. I wonder what new injuries tomorrow will bring. 

Here's what else you need to know about from Wednesday's action around MLB: 

Thursday's top waiver-wire targets

Here's who we're looking to add coming out of Wednesday's action: 

Robby Snelling, SP, Marlins (51%) – The Marlins made it official Wednesday, with Snelling set to make his MLB debut Friday against the Nationals. It's not quite as soft a landing spot as you might think, as the Nationals have the fourth-best wRC+ as a team against lefties. Still, he's a very talented pitcher, a near-consensus top-50 prospect (at least) at this point, and someone I very much expect to hold his own in the majors. I think there's been enough hype built up around him for long enough that some might be expecting immediate ace production, which might be putting a bit too much on any prospect's shoulders, but especially Snelling's, who has projected as more of a solid mid-rotation arm than an ace. But he's a lefty with a full arsenal of at least good pitches, and we've seen guys like Parker Messick make that work very well in the majors recently. He's a must-add pitcher in all formats for his debut, and we'll take it from there. 

Jeffrey Springs, SP, Athletics (71%) – Springs isn't a great pitcher, but he's competent enough. And competent works against the right matchups. If you lost a part of your rotation recently and Springs is available in your league, this is a good chance to get ahead of the waiver wire for next week, where he is scheduled to face the Giants and Cardinals, both away from Sacramento. It may not work out for you, but those are the kinds of matchups Springs should be able to take advantage of. 

Andrew Vaughn, 1B, Brewers (34%) – There are some medium-term concerns about whether Vaughn is going to have an everyday role once Christian Yelich gets back from the IL, but the best thing he could do to make that a non-issue is spend the next few weeks mashing like he did last year during the second half. He hit his first homer of the season Wednesday against the Cardinals, and I still think there's a chance last season's breakout wasn't a fluke – he slowed down in August after a torrid July, but then he went out and put up a .942 OPS in September, and his underlying quality of contact metrics were strong all along. Vaughn might just have needed a change of scenery and some new voices in his ear to unlock the potential that once made him one of the top hitting prospects in baseball, and I view him as a viable upside play as a corner infielder. 

Brice Matthews, 2B, Astros (15%) – Matthews is a pretty interesting player, with some legit power and speed potential. He just doesn't make enough contact, with a 36% strikeout rate holding him back. But he's playing pretty regularly right now and has three homers and eight RBI over his past nine days, making him a viable hot-hand play, if not a long-term option in most leagues. 

Wednesday's standouts

Shane McClanahan, Rays vs. TOR: 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K – I was worried we might get some real downside outcomes from McClanahan after his second Tommy John surgery plus the nerve issues he dealt with last season, but I think we can safely conclude that's out of the window. At least from a performance standpoint, McClanahan looks very solid right now, and while I don't think the "maybe he's the best pitcher in baseball" upside he once had isn't there anymore, he's clearly still a very effective pitcher, especially now that he seems to be showing better control. Things aren't perfect, of course. There's always going to be heightened injury risk that will make paying full face value for McClanahan's production an iffy proposition. And, of course, the Rays are fully aware of that risk, which probably helps explain why he was pulled at 69 pitches Wednesday and has yet to throw more than 90 pitches in a start. I suspect the Rays are going to treat McClanahan much like they've treated Drew Rasmussen, which means he's going to have to be super efficient to get through six innings. He's capable of it, as Rasmussen is, but more often, you'll see McClanahan getting through five innings, and that's it. Oh well, there's nothing wrong with being Drew Rasmussen, you know? 

Andy Pages, OF, Dodgers – Let's talk about it. I was not much of a believer in Pages throughout his breakout 2025 season, and I wasn't particularly interested in drafting him coming into the season. That looks especially silly after his three-homer game Wednesday, but it looked pretty silly before that, when he was hitting .326/.368/.500 coming off a three-hit game Tuesday. And in some ways, he looks like a legitimately improved hitter, keeping his roughly average-ish contact skills intact while putting up the best quality of contact metrics of his career. He's become a bit more all-fields oriented in his approach, while adding nearly 2 mph to his average exit velocity and bumping his hard-hit rate from a below-average 37.2% in 2025 to a very good 52.9% rate. Add it all up, and his .347 xwOBA is a 30-point improvement on 2025's mark even before Wednesday is factored in. Of course, he's also continuing to outperform his xwOBA by more than 30 points, even better than last year's mark, despite pulling the ball in the air less often, the primary way hitters can consistently outrun their underlying metrics. Which is all to say: Pages looks improved, for sure, but I think there's also plenty of room for regression. That should go without saying for anyone hitting .336 with a near-40 homer pace, and I obviously don't expect him to hit those marks. But .280 and 25-ish homers? The skills look like they could support that, which would be a big win even if you were higher on him than I was coming in. 

Zack Wheeler, Phillies vs. ATH: 6.1 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K – Like with McClanahan, I don't think we're going to see the best version of Wheeler ever again, at least not consistently. But what the first three starts have shown me is that, at the very least, the worst-case scenario isn't coming to fruition. I think ranking him as a top-30-ish starting pitcher the rest of the way makes sense, though there are still pretty wide error bars on that projection. 

Bryan Woo, Mariners vs. ATL: 6 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 K – Woo needed a bounceback, and it was especially nice to see him getting a bunch of strikeouts. That's been the biggest issue for him this season, though it's an issue I haven't seen a good explanation for why he hasn't quite looked right so far. This is usually a good reason to expect a good pitcher with a track record to regress to their mean. 

Nathan Eovaldi, Rangers @NYY:  8 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K – The bad starts have been especially bad for Eovaldi so far, which is especially frustrating for him – when a pitcher has a track record of missing time like Eovaldi, you really need them to be good when they are healthy, or else it isn't really worth it. But I never had much concern that the slow start was real, so I'm not especially surprised by how he has turned things around. Eovaldi is too good not to be worth using for Fantasy when healthy. 

Eury Perez, Marlins vs. BAL: 5 IP, 4 H, 5 ER, 5 BB, 6 K – Sigh. I ranked Perez high and had him as a breakout pick, but I didn't actually end up drafting him in any leagues, because I wasn't quite willing to pay the price he typically went for in drafts. I'm pleased about my hesitance so far, but I still have a lot of faith that Perez is going to make me regret passing on him at some point. The stuff is too good for Perez not to go on a run where he looks like one of the best pitchers in baseball, but he has to improve the command significantly to get there. And he hasn't shown any signs of it yet. Don't drop Perez, you have a bench for a reason, but it's hard to trust him as a starter, even in a two-start week coming up. 

Will Warren, Yankees vs. TEX: 4 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 7 K – Warren's hot start is, to some extent, a mirage. He's simply not a good enough bat-misser to sustain a strikeout rate around 30%, like he had coming into the game. Funny enough, of course, is that his worst start of the season still came with a 32% strikeout rate. I think he'll regress and settle in as more like a 25% strikeout rate guy with a mid-to-high-3.00s ERA, so there might still be some room for selling high here. 

Noah Schultz, White Sox @LAA: 3.2 IP, 7 H, 7 ER, 4 BB, 3 K – The defense didn't do Schultz any favors, certainly, but this is also a situation where it doesn't really make much sense to blame the defense. Schultz had more walks than strikeouts and actually had more outs recorded on batted balls hit over 100 mph (three) than hits allowed (one). Schultz has plenty of upside in the long term, but he is also still clearly a work in progress, and it's not clear when the light is going to switch on. I have faith it will, but if you don't have the roster space to wait, he's not exactly a must-stash player at this point. 

Josh Naylor, 1B, Mariners – Naylor remains the funniest player in baseball. He stole another base Wednesday, and for the second game in a row, his steal came without even registering a throw from the catcher. He seems to have a preternatural ability to time a pitcher's delivery, and he even seems to pick offspeed and breaking pitches to run on more consistently than any player I've seen. It's incredible to watch him work, and all of a sudden, after going without a steal in the first 21 games of the season, he's up to seven and a 30-plus steal pace. Amazing. 

Sonny Gray, Red Sox @DET: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K – It was good to see Gray get back on the mound after his hamstring injury, but I just haven't seen much to be optimistic about him this season. The 3.54 ERA is decent, but it's coming with almost no strikeouts and an ugly 1.29 WHIP. Gray could still be useful moving forward, but I don't have much faith in him as anything more than a low-end option, so if anyone still sees upside here, I'd be looking to move him. 

Bailey Ober, Twins @WAS: 5 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 3 K – Ober was getting solid results lately, but it never looked like he was turning the clock back or anything. His fastball velocity, never great, is nearly 2 mph down from last season and 3 mph down from the last time he was actually a good pitcher, and it's been taking his strikeout rate down with it. This is always the risk of going with the hot-hand play at pitcher, because one start can undo all of the good work – Ober's ERA is back up to 4.19, and I think you can drop him without much fear of regret in nearly all leagues to chase actual upside.